For more than 30 years, Cathy Mulroy worked for Inco and she kept a record of all her experiences – writing on paper towels, inside her cigarette package — all the while leaving notes and reminders wherever possible.

“I started writing everything down on anything I could get my hands on,” said Mulroy, now 65, and who was 19 when Inco hired her in 1974.

It was the first time Inco started hiring women since the end of the Second World War.

Mulroy worked on the anode-casting wheel in the copper refinery. Her job was to empty the molten metal arriving in hot cars from the smelter and into the furnace.

“Then I started carrying a little pad with me, writing everything down and I’d throw it in a box.”

When she retired, she had three bins full of notes and information. So, Mulroy decided to write a book — My View from the Blackened Rocks.

“I have so much stuff written that I could make a trilogy no problem,” Mulroy laughed. “I didn’t know I liked to write, but all of a sudden, I love writing.”

My View from the Blackened Rocks chronicles Mulroy’s years at Inco and her experiences as one of the first women to work there.

Mulroy described the process of putting together My View from the Blackened Rocks as being therapeutic and emotionally draining, all at the same time.

Cathy Mulroy was one of the first women to work at Inco in the 1970s, the first time the company hired women after the Second World War. Her book, to be released in the fall, details her experiences as a woman in the mining industry.Jennifer Penney /
jpg, SU

“You have to relive it over and over and over,” Mulroy said. “All of those things that happened to me, as you write it, it’s healthy, getting rid of all that crap that’s in your body, all the negativity.”

The book was originally three times the size it is now, as the published copy has been trimmed down to roughly 500 pages long.

“The hard part was taking some of the stories out,” Mulroy said. “Emotionally, well, it was pretty tricky, especially at the very end and you have the manuscript in your hand and you have to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. That I found very emotional, both sad, happy, angry, all of the above.”

But at the end of the day, she’s excited for her book to be released, her message and stories to be available to the public.

Mulroy will host a book launch at the Steelworkers’ Hall on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Mulroy said. “I’m over the blackened hills. I am so overwhelmed right now. It has taken off so quickly.”

The book’s cover was created by local painter Janet Kobelka – depicting a young woman sitting on rocks and looking out to the Inco Superstack.